FORT WORTH, Texas – Former House Speaker Jim Wright was denied a voter ID card over the weekend at a Texas Department of Public Safety office.

“Nobody was ugly to us, but they insisted that they wouldn’t give me an ID,” Wright said.

Wright said he has worked things out with DPS and that he will get a state-issued personal identification card in time for him to vote Tuesday in the state and local elections.

But after the difficulty he had on Saturday when trying to get an ID card, Wright, 90, expressed concern that such problems could deter others from voting. Wrights said that after spending much of his life fighting to make it easier to vote, he is troubled by what he’s seeing happen under the state’s new voter ID law.

“I earnestly hope these unduly stringent requirements on voters won’t dramatically reduce the number of people who vote,” Wright said. “I think they will reduce the number to some extent.”

Wright and his assistant, Norma Ritchson, went to the DPS office to get a voter ID. Wright said he realized earlier in the week that the photo identifications he had do not satisfy the voter ID law, enacted in 2011. DPS officials concurred.

But Wright and Ritchson will return to the office today with a certified copy of his birth certificate, which DPS employees assured them would be sufficient.